I didn't need any type of description to know what a Skillbook was. Immediately, I pulled up my Inventory. The max it could hold was 15 items, and items didn't stack. Staring me in the face were three red books. They weren't especially well-maintained, but the contents were exciting.

  

  Something about how the tutorial's message seemed oddly normal tugged at the back of my brain, but I nodded. "The tutorial is a tutorial, which means it's going to end at some point. I'll potentially be able to use this skill for the rest of my life."

  

  Brushing off the weird answers, I grabbed at the screen with the worst looking book. If I could find a town or something with people in it, I could potentially sell the other ones. As it stood now, I had simply woken up with the clothes on my back and a dagger that had broken in a single hit.

  I glanced at the fourth item, the original reward for killing the goblin. It was just a poorly made dagger, yet I felt a slight connection to it. The horrible luck of that goblin reminded me of how I had been not even two days ago.

  Someone who would slip and fall on his ass on a banana peel.

  I vowed I would never sell the dagger, as a reminder of how far I had already come.

  Shaking my head clear of such depressing thoughts, I inspected the book in my hands.

  

  "Yes."

  I went to open the book, but it flew open by itself. The pages began to glow, flipping rapidly end over end. With each page, I felt a piece of the skill being ingrained into my soul, until it reached the end, and as the last page turned the whole book flashed a bright red, causing me to cover my eyes. As I lowered my hand, I saw the book was gone, and I knew instinctively I could use the skill.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Still, I wanted to test it, so I pulled out the new dagger I had gotten and stared at it. 'Analyze.'

  [Crude Dagger]

  [Rank: Common]

  [Description: A goblin's sword that was roughly made from steel ore.]

  

  Atk: +6

  Def: +2

  Spe: +9

  Dur: 16/16

  [Attention. The user's Skill Analyze has been confirmed. Tutorial will now end.]

  So this was the side effect it meant.

  
  P.S. You haven't seen the last of Me!>

  "…"

  I was silent for a minute as I looked at the message. After a few long seconds, a single tear fell from one of my eyes.

  

  Finally, I couldn't hold it in anymore. "Finally, some peace and quiet," I said, a small smile spreading upon my face. ''Took long enough, honestly.''

  <…>

  Suddenly, a hundred messages popped up all at once, causing me to fall backwards as I yelped from the shock. My ears rang from the loud 'ding!' sound 100 times over.

  "Oh for fuck's sake!" I yelled, commanding all the messages to clear at once in my head. With a blink of my eyes, all but two disappeared. They were layered over one another, so I read the first one before moving it to look at the second.

  

  [Tutorial has ended.]

  After clearing the last two messages, I stared intensely at the ground, half expecting the tutorial to pop back up, telling me it's actually here to stay.

  But… nothing.

  Finally, I heaved a sigh, one that carried my emotions in it. It was an odd mixture of relief, sadness, slight worry and a hint of nostalgia, for a reason I couldn't explain.

  "It makes sense, though," I muttered to myself. "I mean, Analyze kind of makes the tutorial seem obsolete and redundant."

  Still, I couldn't exactly shake the feeling that the tutorial had done more than I gave it credit for. "Oh, well," I sighed again, before reorienting myself to head south again. I wasn't sure how far away civilization was, but it couldn't be too far, right?

  - - -

  One and a half days later…

  "Good riddance to that damn lying tutorial! I'll never find anything but trees out here! I bet it sent me in the wrong direction on purpose!" I bellowed angrily.

  I hadn't realized it, but having the tutorial as something to make me feel as if I wasn't alone had kept me from going mad, and I quickly descended into delirium without it.

  "Fuck you, you heartless tutorialllll!"

  * * *

  [Name: Klum]

  [Age: 17]

  [Lv: 2]

  [EXP: 24/50]

  [Health: 32/35]

  [Mana: 32/38]

  [Stamina: 34/35]

  STR: 6 MAG:4

  AGI: 8 DEX: 5

  VIT: 5 INT: 8

  ACC: 6

  DEF: 5

  POW: 6

  [Skills: Klum's Reincarnation (Unfound), Critical Eye (Rare), Slash (Common)]

  [Slash (Common Active Skill): The user gains 150% atk power with blade-type weapons only. The effect ends after one attack lands or duration ends.

  Duration: 30 seconds — Cost: 6 Mana, 2 Stamina — Cooldown: 30 seconds]

  [Klum's Reincarnation (Unfound Autoskill)]

  [Cooldown remaining: 1 day, 17 hours…]